Caroline put all her babies to bed after they had a hard day of playing. She decided that the mommy needed to go to bed as well. She thought she looked better with her baby doll hat on her head. I have to agree.
But Jack and I have been looking for a baseball hat for Caroline for three seasons. I finally saw one today at Target (near the toothpaste of all places). We think she is pretty cute.
It is 73 degrees. Jack is grilling. Caroline and I are hanging out in the comfy chairs in our back yard. The flowers are out. We are loving life.
We had a wonderful time at Liz and Russel's house last night celebrating Caroline and Noah's birthdays. They were adorable together and are staring to become better buddies as they grow up. (Though all of Caroline's cousins were incredibly sweet to her last night). We had a good time eating, laughing and playing apples to apples. Liz was kind enough to make us dinner and we brought the cupcakes (a few pics of those below as well). Caroline is now fully three.
It is hard to believe but Caroline is actually three years old today. Unbelievable. But we had a great day with our big girl. She got up to her favorite breakfast--scones and blueberries. She and I played games, skyped with family and went to the playground. After her nap our dear friends Ann Thomas and her daughter Griffin came over. It is actually Ann Thomas' birthday as well. So we had our second annual high tea (or hot chocolate for the girls). Then Daddy came home for a fun dinner. Jack thought of doing a take off from Curious George and did pizza cut in fun shapes. Caroline had a star with cheese and olives. Then her dear friend Charles Henry came over for cupcakes. What a fun day to be three!
We took advantage of President's day today and went to the National Aquarium in Baltimore today. It was super cool. There were amazing tanks of fish, but also enclosed areas where birds were flying above free (and the fish/turtles/lizards in tanks below. We saw dolphins, sharks, jellyfish, innumerable fish, anemone, coral and more. Caroline liked everything but the VERY loud bird in the Amazon area (she put her hands over her ears) and the lizards. She REALLY did not like the lizards. But she thought the turtles were really fun and was particularly impressed by a number of fish that were almost certainly bigger than her.
After nap we took Caroline to Iwo Jima and then to Ray's Hell Burger. I have no idea how she did thus, but she ate half of an 8 oz burger with cheese and bacon and many of my sweet potato fries. She took the bacon off the burger and ate it and then munched down half the burger. It was fantastic to be out on a beautiful day. And it was nice to be at Iwo Jima without most tourists. We had great fun!
Today was Caroline's joint birthday party with her dear friend Ruthie (who was born four days before her). They wanted the same friends to come, so we did it all together. They had a great time. They colored pictures, played pin the tail on a donkey, opened presents, "flew" onto the couch courtesy of our friend Brad (aka Ashley's daddy). And, of course they ate cupcakes. Caroline wanted monkeys for her birthday. Ruthie wanted flowers. They decorations are proof that the Lord cares even about the mundane. I found pink flowered monkey plates/coupes/napkins. Here are some pictures from the fun.
Caroline is old enough to enjoy the day. She had a blast both making Valentines and getting them. (I wish I had gotten a good picture of her coloring Jack's Valentine. She was SO earnest). Thy had a party in her class today. Hilarious. They all kept saying happy birthday rather than happy Valentines Day. But they had fun, so who cares? I also got a picture of her trying to make the pop sound in the lollipop song. Too funny.
This morning we broke out the glitter glue, stickers, lace, and kid size scissors to make Valentines. Caroline spent three and a half hours carefully applying copious amounts of glitter glue, shiny hearts, stickers and the like to paper. We now have a small card shop of drying cards on almost every flat surface in our front room. She had a blast (deciding not to stop for snack, because she was right in the middle of "making a card pretty.") She was pretty fun to watch while she concentrated hard on sticker placement. I also confess that I had a good time playing with the glitter glue too!!
